Tom Aspinall is starting to lose hope that he’ll ever fight Jon Jones.
This past November, Aspinall knocked out Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295 to claim the interim heavyweight title. Normally, becoming interim champion would get you a guaranteed shot at the undisputed champion, but this time around there’s a problem: That champion is Jon Jones.
Jones is currently recovering from injury, and when he returns, will defend his undisputed title against former champion Stipe Miocic, despite the fact that Miocic has not fought in three years and has not won a fight in four years. Aspinall would of course like to fight the winner of that bout, but Jones has been pointedly uncommitted to the matchup. Then last week things took an even worse turn for Aspinall when Jones flat-out said he’d prefer to fight light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.
All in all, an undisputed title shot isn’t looking all that likely for Aspinall, who lamented the situation when asked about it by TNT Sports recently.
“If we can get old mate Jon to ever sign a contract with my name on the other side of the contract, I’ll talk about him for hours on this show,” Aspinall said. “Hours. But right now, the guy is playing games again. Trying to convince the public what he wants and what he doesn’t want. Which he does really, really well. As I said, we can chat about Jon, if and when he ever signs a contract with my name on the other side of it. Because right now, let’s be honest, it’s not looking very likely.”
Instead, Aspinall will likely compete at UFC 304, which takes place on July 27 in Manchester, England. Aspinall certainly thinks so, and though he still does not have an opponent scheduled, Aspinall is prepared to put his interim belt on the line against whoever the UFC chooses.
“The last I knew, it was going to get announced this weekend [at UFC 301], and obviously that’s been and gone now,” Aspinall said when asked about UFC 304.
“Right now, I have no idea what’s going on. I wish I could come on the show, I wish I could announce on social media, I wish I could start dragging traffic that way, but right now I have no idea. I’m just getting myself prepared for that date. As far as opponents and stuff like that, I don’t know what’s going on right now.”